u heard about a lens flare plug-in for ae?

J Davis

J Davis

Veteran
I overheard a conversation where someone was raving about a flare plug-in for AE that they just got
anyone know what it's called?
(I'm on a project that requires comped flares)
 
LOL ! So Kramer made that back in 2008?

I wonder why the ae artist was really talking up about it so much today. Could it possibly be a different plug-in he
was talking about?

edit:
just got email from ae artist, yeh its the kramer plugin he was referring to. Thanks guys
I'm not so up-to-date when it comes to comping
 
Last edited:
^ Dude, cut yourself some slack. It was 2 years ago, if that.

Everything comes out so quick these days, it's getting ridiculous. :grin:
 
arniepix said:
IMO, the best lens flare package is Knoll Light Factory from Redgiant.
Click to expand...

I disagree with you, the best is the actual Optical flares from Videocopilot see:

http://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/

It has been redesigned to work with CS5 64 bits (it works also in 32 bits enviroment), it is truly 3D flare, the interface is so well designed and the effect absolutly custom controled. You can save your favorite presets also.

Andrew has posted several, well done, tutorials about it.
 
Pretty sure Optical Flares are what was used throughout Star Trek. Either way, they are some really nice flares. I've been using Knoll for years, and the EZ version really is easy to use. But Andrew's flares I think top them.
 
I kinda like shooting my own flare plates if time allows. Black card with a hole in it, bright light, and a collection of old magnifying glasses, scratched up CD case covers, forehead-oil on a piece of acetate film, etc... makes you feel like an artist!
 
Michael Carter said:
I kinda like shooting my own flare plates if time allows. Black card with a hole in it, bright light, and a collection of old magnifying glasses, scratched up CD case covers, forehead-oil on a piece of acetate film, etc... makes you feel like an artist!
Click to expand...

hey I was planing to do this as well. Could you possibly share some of your techniques?
Also what do you mean with a pinhole?
 
Bottom line is if you want to create flares in 3D space in AE, Optical flares from VC is great.

This was shot on the 5dmkii. Original was a touch noisy and in grading I wanted to lighten the frame, but was adding to much noise into the mix when I did it.

Took it to AE, used flares to lighten it up, without adding noise to the original image.

Shot is in the edit for like 1.5 seconds where the car turns in. 3D flare added to tracked null object on two nearest street lights and then car headlights.

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J Davis said:
hey I was planing to do this as well. Could you possibly share some of your techniques?
Also what do you mean with a pinhole?
Click to expand...

Lat time I used a 750 fresnel; it was pointed at a large piece of black card with a hole about the size of a pencil cut in it.

Aim the light straight at your lens, with the card in between, so the light is coming straight through the hole. So you're basically making a tiny little light pointed at your lens. Play with the relative distances of light/camera/card - I think I had the card about 8" from the lens and the camera about 4 feet away.

Try different lenses, and try different materials in front of the lens - I used an old, dirty magnifying glass and also an old, scratched-up CD case cover. Slowly spin these items by hand, pass them left to right, etc. You can also get the camera closer to the card, mount a magnifying glass, a drinking glass, etc if front of the lens, and use a dolly or slider to move left to right; try pans, try moving whatever distorted glass you use, etc.

The lens I liked best was my ghetto tilt lens - which is a plastic lens from a toy camera (chopped out with a dremel) and mounted to a rod support block with a small metal spring. I can sort of twist and shift that rig, and the plastic elements really flare up like crazy.

Those cheap eBay wide and tele adapters can be really cool -they're only reasonably sharp in the center, and the sides get really crazy chromatic aberrations.

You can also try using a magnifying glass instead of a camera lens - just take your lens off and play with the distance between glass and lens mount. You can get some really cool "light leak" sort of looks.

Just experiment and shoot a lot of plates - you'll find some cool stuff.
 
Michael Carter said:
Lat time I used a 750 fresnel; it was pointed at a large piece of black card with a hole about the size of a pencil cut in it.

Aim the light straight at your lens, with the card in between, so the light is coming straight through the hole. So you're basically making a tiny little light pointed at your lens. Play with the relative distances of light/camera/card - I think I had the card about 8" from the lens and the camera about 4 feet away.

Try different lenses, and try different materials in front of the lens - I used an old, dirty magnifying glass and also an old, scratched-up CD case cover. Slowly spin these items by hand, pass them left to right, etc. You can also get the camera closer to the card, mount a magnifying glass, a drinking glass, etc if front of the lens, and use a dolly or slider to move left to right; try pans, try moving whatever distorted glass you use, etc.

The lens I liked best was my ghetto tilt lens - which is a plastic lens from a toy camera (chopped out with a dremel) and mounted to a rod support block with a small metal spring. I can sort of twist and shift that rig, and the plastic elements really flare up like crazy.

Those cheap eBay wide and tele adapters can be really cool -they're only reasonably sharp in the center, and the sides get really crazy chromatic aberrations.

You can also try using a magnifying glass instead of a camera lens - just take your lens off and play with the distance between glass and lens mount. You can get some really cool "light leak" sort of looks.

Just experiment and shoot a lot of plates - you'll find some cool stuff.
Click to expand...

I shot a bunch of plates last night, before you posted this. I was using a pin hole in black wrap and found myself using diopters to reduce the close focus distance.
Wasn't crazy about my results from EOS lenses but my old nikon manuals, especially the wides when stopped down looked great. I will try your pencil sized hole next. I'm looking forward to combining these with the more digital clean flares from AE. To help very it up a little. Thanks for your advice.
 
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